My son's fish had babies, help!

[booboobutt]

They are mollies, I think. The babies are brand new, I took them out of the main tank last night and into a little Tupperware filled with tank water, but about an hour after they go into the Tupperware they change from a dark brown/Black/grey colour to pretty much transparent/pale brown. Are they poorly? Should I put them back?

They have fry food but i haven't seen them eat it. Please help my little baby fish thrive!!

Thanks.

Oh lovely, I love baby fish.
easiest way to keep them is to get a net insert to go in the main tank. Babies live in the insert, but tank water free flows so they get filtered water etc.

We have a big tank with a LOT of thick plants, and we leave them in the main tank. The babies hide in the weeds and those that survive are pretty robust

If you have them in a tupperware, it needs to be pretty big, and replace half the water with fresh tank water every couple of days.

Don't know about colour, ours start very pale/transparent and then colour up as they grow.

Ok, I'll change them into a giant Tupperware with more tank water and some of the plants from the main tank, there are about 15 in a tiny little pot now - the fish are about 4mm long at the moment.

They are so sweet, I want to make sure I'm looking after them properly! DS (5) already tipped a load of food in with them so I had to change the water already so I'm worried they're all stressed out now.

Mollies breed like absolute crazy, and one fertilization can result in several drops of babies, even without taking into consideration the new males in the tank from the babies. Most pet stores won't take home bred mollies because they tend to be inbred, so you'll be overrun pretty soon. It may be better to leave them in the tank, the mother will pick off any weaker ones and the strong ones will survive. Otherwise, a breeding net is the best bet, and start trying to find homes asap!

Ah what?! They didn't tell us this when we bought them! Flipping heck...

yes, one of the reasons we leave ours in the tank is that if you have 20 offspring, then about 5 survive to adulthood.
(they get eaten by the adults)

But the first time and all the little fish are very sweet, so enjoy, and perhaps let the next batch be fishfood....

We had this and it we ended up having new batches of babies every few weeks! We always left them in the tank. Some were good at hiding in the plants and made it into adulthood. Others, well....

After several batches we did start to notice some with weird colouring, dodgy eyes etc which was worrying. Too much inbreeding I guess.

They were the cutest thing though. After a week or so they had these cute little google eyes

Oh dear, this is why we got fish instead of giant snails but it looks like we still have the same problem... I don't know if I could let them be eaten! But I suppose by the time I have 50 of them I might be a bit less sympathetic.

They have perked up now in a bigger pot with more water and some plants. They're darting around like crazy! I put one of the snails in there too to keep the "tank" clean.

Get a big fish with a big mouth. Honestly, the best way is survival of the fittest or you will be overrun with baby fish. I thought the babies were really cute to start with, but we ended up with so many of them and nowhere to send them too. Even leaving them in the big tank with the other fish will mean some of them reach adult hood and then they will have babies, who will have babies, who will then have more babies. You will be a great great grandmother to baby fish before you know it. Dont get attached and put them Back in the big tank and let nature take its course.

I've already told my son if we leave them in the big tank they'll get eaten, and he is just thrilled to have babies. I'll let these ones grow and maybe take them in to work (a nursery), then leave all future ones in the tank.

I'm regretting getting Mollies now. We did so much research I can't believe we missed this.

I only get egg laying fish and keep a few carnivorous snails, no babies at all and I don’t need to worry about overstocking.

We also found that our fish breed less and less over time.
New fish were prolific breeders, but older fish and the inbred offspring less good, so we had some natural slowing down of the process.

I am not sure with Mollies, but we had guppies and sword tails (breed the same way) and you can clearly see which are male and which are female, so you could quietly cull all the males out. Trouble is the males tend to be prettier! Groups of males don't do well together.